Germany heads for early election

[Eugene]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1533968,00.html

Germany heads for early election

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Friday July 22, 2005
The Guardian

Germany's president, Horst Köhler, set the stage last night for early
elections on September 18 when he announced he would dissolve
parliament following a vote of no confidence in the government of the
chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.

In a televised speech, Mr Köhler said Germany needed a government that
could robustly tackle chronic unemployment and fiscal problems.

more...

[Endangered Specie]

1. Dang, Id love to have a 'vote of no confidence' here...

Im no expert on German politics, anyone got a crash course?

[OldEurope]

2. Here you are:

The German chancellor is not elected directly. The parliament (Bundestag) is voting for someone to be chancellor, normally it´s the leader of the party which has the majority of the seats in the Bundestag. After the last elections, there was no majority (which is normal here), so the members of the SPD (Socialists) and the Greens voted together for Schröder. The two parties together have a small majority, just a handfull of seats.
If the majorities or coalitions within the Bundestag change, there must be a possibility to elect a new chancellor. This is the vote of confidence.
Either a majority of the members of Parliament decides to start a "Misstrauensvotum", that is: vote of no-confidence ("you, chancellor, have no majority any longer").
Or the chancellor himself can ask the Parliament for a vote of confidence; this is called "Vertrauensfrage", the chancellor is asking the parliament to follow his politics. (This is normally used, when he/she has some trouble with his/her own party)
Now Schröder did something unusual: he asked his own party and his coalition partner NOT to trust him, so that the President could schedule elections.

:toast:

[Endangered Specie]

3. thanks... one more thing:

The opposition are the Christian Democrats... what are they like?

I guess Schroeder felt that if he didnt start the chain of events required to call an election, his party would fall even worse in favor and do really bad come when he had to call elections (5 years, right?)

[Kellanved]

4. that was probably part of it

The real problem the conservative majority in the upper house vetoing practically all actions of the Schröder government. By this, the red-green coalition was rendered ineffective - only a bogeyman for the "evil government" crowd. The only way to break free of the total standstill is to end the coalition; yet that is not possible, as the conservatives have no interest in entering a coalition as the small partner - they'd rather see the country rot, than giving in to reason. (plus: it would be like stabbing the greens in the back)

So Schröder took the bold move to ask the voters for a new hand of cards.




As to the CDU: normal European conservatives. Not much of an agenda beyond "We want to become Chancellor"; if in doubt they are against immigration, civil rights and women's rights; but that's rarely important, as they have a proud record of being conservative: i.e. doing nothing except accepting bribes.

[Turley]

5. "doing nothing except accepting bribes."

Point well taken on the bribery scandals, but you have to give Kohl & Co their dues on engineering reunification. It's not as if the country just reunited through magic.

[Kellanved]

6. actually it did

Kohl almost managed to botch it (the Gorbachev, Goebbels comparison comes to mind). The amateurish handling of the monetary unification is still the number one reason for Germany's economic problems, the rushed and forced development has failed to create a sustainable economy.

The reunification happened while Kohl was chancellor, not because Kohl was chancellor.

[OldEurope]

7. So true.

And describing the CDU we should also mention, that that Merkel woman did like the idea to join the Iraq war.

:puke: